[Breach]

Allow me to say that I'm apparently jinxed - of all cars parked in my street it had to be my one and half month old F10 - some construction workers started setting up their scaffolding and one of the elements fell and utterly destroyed (dented in two places) my car's rear door...

They were at least honest to God and completely admitted to it so their insurance will at least cover the repair cost.

Thing is the BMW dealer I went to said they'd have to replace the entire door - which means they have to order and paint it - my question is: apart from any risk they'd do a lousy job installing it (no experience with them so I can't speculate on this), what kind of paint job would they do? I got the impression they would have to order the door primed and paint it themselves, and although they are an authorised BMW body-shop, as far as I know that's always worse than a factory done paint job. Any thoughts here?

[AWi]

I had a similar experience with my 535dT, it was 2.5 days old when it happened ...

Right rear door needed to be replaced. They moved over the interior and had it painted and at least in my case they did a great job. I can't see or hear any difference (noises etc) with the new door and even in direct sunlight there's no difference in paint shade etc. Just remember that the paint take about 2 weeks to harden completely so no major polishing etc to be done until after the grace period.

[Breach]

Yikes, your experience was even worse. Thanks for the feedback!

[BobRBob]

What a pain but I think you'll be ok. Most body shops these days are very good at matching paint and there should be no worries about fit as the door frame isn't damaged.

[pharding]

If it is a competent BMW Authorized Body Shop with an excellent reputation, you will be fine. I would ask around and get the BMW authorized body shop in your city with the best reputation. What they will do is paint the door and blend the new paint into adjacent surfaces so that you end up with perfect paint match. If done properly you absolutely will never be able to see that the door was replaced. I definitely would seek out the best BMW Authorized body Shop in your area. I have had numerous body panels painted on new BMW's over the last 10 years and it has always turned out flawless. However I go to superb BMW Authorized Body Shop with lots of experience on BMWs and other high end cars.

[sim303]

When I had my E36 coupe I had 2 major repairs (T-Boned door and sill; Side-swiped door and rear quarter) and one minor repair (front arch parking ding) all carried out by my local authorised bmw dealer. In each case the quality of repair was impeccable and undetectable. The first thing is that they don't mess with re-using parts, anything suspect is just replaced as a matter of course so you don't have to worry about damaged seals or gaskets etc. Plus they know how the body fits together and can redo any type of fixing - weld, specials rivets, bonding etc. Finally the paint finish is immaculate. In the case of by two major repairs they painted the entire side of the car to get an undetectable blend.

My E92 coupe is booked in for a roof replacement in a couple of weeks and I would not trust it to anyone else, even though I have to pay an extra fee for not using the insurance company's recommended shop. To me it's worth what it costs to get it done right.

In short, don't worry about it!

sim

[sim303]

Oh and to add, I had a wander through their bodyshop during an open day, top equipment and facilities and all maintained to a very high standard. Very impressive.

[1HOT BMR]

What color is your car? Some colors are more difficult to match than others. Some people can match but most cannot and the "blending" that someone talked about is about painting your car of a different color including adjacent panels so it is hard for you to notice where the color changes. This is done to save time - and especially money - by not having to paint and repaint the same panel multiple times to match the color.

Bottom line is that it will never be like a factory paint but if you get lucky the people at your shop will be good and can match the color without "blending"
If your car is white is even better because this is one of the easiest colors to match. Good luck

[Breach]

Thanks for all the replies.

@1HOR_BMR: It's sophisto grey (aka dark graphite).

[Breach]

Just to give you an update guys. Got my car back today - superb job, can't tell the difference at all! The only thing that made me kinda unhappy was that they left smudge marks all over my Oyster leather interior ;-)

[pharding]

My front car was hit in February of this year, and the right front aluminum fender had to be replaced. The fender, workmanship, and paint job are all flawless. I cannot tell by studying the fender closely that any work was done on it. It is important to get a high quality BMW authorized body shop that will assign their best guy/gal to the project and use the BMW original paint.